12AC and AB - The Film Industry in Britain 2011

Here's the second study guide to the Film Industry. This one focuses on the British Film Industry in 2011 and the recent successes and failures. Work your way through the questions and post the answers onto your blog.

03 g322 section b the british film industry 2011 from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Case Study - London to Brighton - How to sell a low-budget British film

Click on the title to go to the Film London 'Microwave' site aimed at helping inexperienced film-makers get their films made and distributed.

This short video shows you how a micro-budget movie can gain critical and commercial success with a carefully thought through distribution and marketing strategy.

Older women unhappy over their portrayal in films, survey shows

Sixty-one percent of women aged 50-75 want more focus on their sexual desire, according to UK Film Council poll

Older women want to see more of their sexual desire depicted in film, a survey has suggested, while black and gay people would like to see less of a focus on theirs.


Sixty-one percent of women between the ages of 50 and 75 questioned for a UK Film Council survey of 4,315 people said women of their age were portrayed on the big screen as not having sexual needs or desires. Half said they were comfortable with older women being seen as attractive to younger men. Seven in 10 also felt that their group was generally under-represented in films and that younger women were glamorised.
In contrast, two-thirds of black African and Caribbean people said black characters were portrayed as being overly sexual. Eighty percent of the gay people questioned felt gay characters' sexuality commanded disproportionate attention.

The survey highlighted a series of stereotypes and imbalances in films, with 80% of black respondents also believing films contained too many black drug dealers, and 74% calling for more superheroes who are not white males.

For more info, click on the link...

How The King's Speech got an outside edge at the Oscars

The King's Speech's Oscars victory over studio big-hitter The Social Network is a triumph for independent film financing

The success of independent cinema at the Oscars is nothing new, but it's always a welcome sight. Sunday night's marginal triumph by The King's Speech over the studio's biggest heavy hitter, The Social Network, will have spread good cheer among the movie's many backers outside the studio system. The King's Speech is one of the moribund UK Film Council's last hurrahs, although there are quite a few forthcoming releases that will bear the stamp of the ill-fated funding body, such as Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin, Terence Davies's The Deep Blue Sea and Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights.

The UK Film Council was one of several key elements on the project, along with UK financiers Prescience and Aegis, UK distributor Momentum Pictures and Australian distributor Transmission, whose sister company See-Saw, run by Iain Canning and Emile Sherman, came on board to produce with Gareth Unwin's Bedlam Productions, which had been a longtime champion of the project.

That's quite a list and I'm not even sure it's comprehensive, but it illustrates a truism in independent film financing: the tougher the sell, the greater the number of investors. No studio would have gone near this because the project lacked brand recognition, wasn't part of a franchise and didn't offer clear merchandising opportunities.

And then, of course, there is Harvey Weinstein, the Oscar impresario extraordinaire whose apparently resurgent company did such a bang-up job distributing The King's Speech in the US. The film launched modestly in a handful of theatres last December and climbed from 43 to 700 theatres over the Christmas weekend, rising steadily after that. Heading into the final weekend before the Oscar nominations on 25 January, the movie played in 1,680 theatres, and by the time it emerged as the frontrunner on 12 nominations it was in 2,557.

It went on to gross more than half of its current $114m (£70m) running total in the so-called Oscar corridor between the day of nominations and the show itself. That's the Oscar bump in action and you see it with another success story, Black Swan, which amassed roughly one-fifth of its $103m running total in the same period. Both will continue to prosper now that they have gongs to their name. The King's Speech will go out as a PG-13, too, after Weinstein cut a few expletives from the original R-rated version. Colin Firth disapproves and thinks the movie should be seen "as is", and I wholeheartedly agree. Alas the gatekeepers in the US believe audiences must be protected from the brutal spectrum of the English language, even though they are happy to expose under-13s to a disgraceful level of on-screen violence week-in, week-out.

For some years now a movie's prospects outside the US have played a key role in assembling the financing and distribution. Central to this is the international pre-sale, whereby a company licenses distribution rights to a forthcoming project in return for a portion of the budget. In this regard kudos is due to FilmNation, the New York-based company run by the vastly experienced former Weinstein lieutenant Glen Basner. FilmNation handled international sales on The King's Speech and ensured it ended up in safe hands outside the US. To date the movie has grossed more than $130m outside the US, bringing worldwide ticket sales to around $245m.

Black Swan had a pretty tortuous route to the big screen, too, but when Fox Searchlight came on board as financing partner it knew a good thing and held on to worldwide distribution rights. It's been Hollywood's leading title in the international market for the past few weeks and so far has racked up $123m overseas and $226m worldwide.

These are astonishing and rare numbers for specialty film, but what's so gratifying is that because both movies got made for a price and were expertly released in the US and overseas, they're profitable. The rumour doing the rounds at the recent Berlin film festival was that Weinstein is plotting a sequel to The King's Speech called The Windsors at War. Harvey and his cohorts are keeping mum about that right now as they focus on this year's movies, which include Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in the Oscar hopeful My Week With Marilyn.

Who Killed the UK Film Council?

by Sebastian Doggart

The main reason I left England and moved to Los Angeles ten years ago was the dire state of the British film industry in which I was pursuing a career as a writer and director. Jobs were scarce and funding for new movies was fraught with bureaucratic obstacles. If you wanted training and didn’t get into the National Film and Television School, as happened to me, you’d have to teach yourself.

That was 2000, the year that the Labour government created the UK Film Council “to stimulate a competitive, successful and vibrant UK film industry and culture.” That body has since gone on to train hundreds of film-makers, and to help produce over 900 movies. Watching these pictures almost persuaded me to return to Blighty – fine dramas like This is England and The Last King of Scotland; witty comedies like Bend it Like Beckham and Happy-Go-Lucky; terrific documentaries like Man on Wire; and ground-breaking works of film art like The Arbor.

So it was with some amazement that I read on July 25th last year that the incoming Liberal-Conservative coalition government was abolishing the UK Film Council (UKFC) and had no plans to replace it.

Since then, a tragi-comedy has unfolded in the British film community that has inspired me to do detailed detective work both for this extended post, and for a screenplay that I am hoping will one day become my Four Weddings and a Funeral.

To read the full story...click on the title...

New Film Industry Case Studies for 2010 - Brighton Rock (2010) d. Rowan Joffe

Brighton Rock

Click on the links below to help find information to put together into a personal case study of this new film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1233192/

http://www.brightonrockmovie.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfilms/film/brighton_rock

http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/awards?awardid=16478

http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/article/16022/Brighton-Rock-starts-shooting

http://www.optimumreleasing.com/press/?id=1372

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/mods-and-rockers-return-to-brighton-for-optimum-effect-1776406.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/brighton-rock-the-movie/sixties-brighton-rock-helen-mirren-sam-riley

Making films got too easy says UK Film Council chief

Access to lottery-funding made it too easy for British film-makers to get projects made, the Chairman of the UK Film Council has admitted.

The admission, by Tim Bevan, will be seized upon by those supporting the Coalition’s decision to axe the Film Council and hand responsibility for backing UK film to the British Film Institute.

However Bevan argues that the new structure may now make it too hard to get Film Council-backed projects like The King’s Speech off the ground. And Sam Mendes is leading a wave of directors who are warning that it is now becoming impossible to make mid-budget, intelligent dramas.  

Click on the title to find out more...

Where now for the British film industry?

The UK Film Council is being wound down – so could this be the final curtain for the soap opera that is the British film industry, or is it just what it needs?

If one were to dramatise the history of the British film industry, it probably wouldn't be a film at all. A soap opera would suit it better. How else to frame this litany of false dawns and hubristic triumphs; ignominious collapses and agonised soul-searching? On and on the drama runs, dragging so much history in its wake that certain incidents start repeating themselves, and the latest cliffhanger can look suspiciously similar to the last.

Click on the title to read more...

The UK film industry in statistics

The UK film industry is bucking the recession, according to the UK Film Council. Find all the key data here

The UK Film Council has released its annual statistical yearbook in fully digital format. For the first time, you can access data on the UK film industry quickly and easily, using their searchable website.

Despite the financial crisis, 2009 was a bumper year for UK cinemas, with a record box office of £944m and one of the best admissions figures since 1971 (174 million). British films took a 7% share of the global market, and independent UK films took a record 8.2% share of the domestic market.

Click on the title or link below for more details...

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AgdO92JOXxAOdEFtVFgyV0ZlU0VpQUVrbTZrV25YM2c#gid=3

UK film-makers 'frittering away millions'

British producers warned they must learn to make movies on the cheap if the domestic industry is to survive...this is also true of A level Media Studies students...

The British film industry is haemorrhaging so much money that it will not survive unless it changes its ways. Vast sums are being frittered away on needless production costs and most films recoup only a fraction of their multimillion-pound budgets.

This warning comes from Chris Jones, film-maker and head of the London Screenwriters' Festival, Europe's biggest gathering of writers, at which the issue will be debated later this month.

Find out more by clicking on the title...

Film Council's closure claims its first big victim as Screen East agency folds

Regional body, one of nine that made up Screen England, promoted film-making in east of country...

Screen East, an agency set up to promote film-making in the east of England, is the first large-scale victim of the government's surprise decision to close down the UK Film Council.

The regional body, responsible for luring film productions such as The Duchess, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Atonement, Stardust and Children of Men to its locations, has folded after it was declared insolvent this month. It was one of nine regional agencies that made up Screen England and was funded jointly by the national film council and by the East of England Development Agency, both now being disbanded by the government.

In the wake of the abolition of the UK Film Council two months ago, the regional screen agencies have been left in limbo. At stake is around £30m of lottery money, once distributed by the film council. Ed Vaizey, the culture minister, is to decide on a new chain of command for the British film industry, possibly handing the purse strings to the British Film Institute or The Arts Council of England. Vaizey has pledged to retain the British Film Commission and the other regional film agencies.

The collapse of the agency may threaten the future of the 30-year-old Cambridge Film Festival, which concludes today. "We receive £20,000 each year for the festival which is a substantial chunk of money and enables us to make the festival as unique as it is. Our money for this year's festival has not arrived yet and we are now chasing it," said Bill Thompson, chair of trustees for the Cambridge Film Trust.

Caroline Williams, chief executive of the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, said the film industry played a growing role in the county's economy. "Over four years, the Norfolk film industry's economic impact rose from £685k in 2005/6 to £4.2m in 2008/9," she said.

UK Film Council: out to lunch?

The government's decision to scrap the UK Film Council has been condemned by its leaders as a big mistake. Chris Atkins looks into how the council has spent public money...

UK Film Council axed

UK Film Council one of highest-profile quangos to be cut

The UK Film Council became one of the highest profile quangos to be axed by the coalition government after culture secretary Jeremy Hunt unexpectedly announced its abolition.

In a raft of mergings, streamlinings and closures, Hunt also axed the Museums, Libraries and Archives council (MLA).

John Woodward, chief executive of the UK Film Council, briefed an unprepared staff about the decision at the council's central London headquarters this morning. No one had seen it coming. He said the decision had been taken with "no notice and no consultation".

UK Film Council to be abolished!

The UK Film Council is to be axed as part of a cost-cutting drive by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), it has been announced.

The organisation, founded in 2000, had an annual budget of £15m to invest in British films and employed 75 people.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he wanted to establish a "direct and less bureaucratic relationship with the British Film Institute".

UK Film Council chairman Tim Bevan called it "a bad decision".

He said the announcement was "imposed without any consultation or evaluation".

Click on the title to read more...

Film Council axemen could murder an industry

The government's decision to shut down the UK Film Council is tragically naive. No other body will do a better job

It was nothing short of a hammer blow. This morning, word came through of John Woodward's email to UK Film Council staff informing them that the government was planning to shut them down. Then the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) confirmed it in a written statement at lunchtime. I was genuinely shocked. It felt like I'd nipped out for 10 minutes to get a pie and while I was out they closed the British film industry.

Reading the fine print is tricky. Can it really be the case that the Film Council will be killed, with nothing to take its place? The government has said that lottery funding of films will continue, but transferred to already existing organisations. (Who, exactly? The reason why the Film Council was created in the first place was that no one had proved competent in dealing with film industry funding in the past.) The British Film Institute was promoted with the phrase "strong relationship", but the BFI was stripped of its production funding capability years ago, and was in any case preparing to merge with the Film Council. What's happening there? And what about the Edinburgh and London film festivals, who have basically been directed and repositioned as part of a Film Council funding programme?

Click on the title to find out more...

The Film Industry - Economists defend UK film tax breaks

UK Film Council welcomes Oxford Economics report over concerns that ending filmmaking relief will cost economy.

Ending the tax relief given out to encourage filmmaking in the UK would cost the economy £1.4bn, a report on the economics of the British film industry warned today .

The UK Film Council, which represents the industry, is concerned about the impact of possible government cuts. Its chief executive, John Woodward, said the 104-page report, by Oxford Economics, was "timely".

The Last King of Scotland - British film industry fights back after disastrous 2005

Louise Jury, Arts Correspondent, The Independent Monday, 15 January 2007

The British film industry has bounced back from tax break paralysis to secure the second highest production spending figures on record thanks to a string of big Hollywood productions.
After the disaster of 2005, when a Government crackdown on abuse of the tax system and uncertainty over new tax breaks caused a slump in film-making, the industry has staged a miraculous recovery with investment up 48 per cent on 2005.

New figures from the UK Film Council published today show that £840m was spent on making movies in the UK last year including the first part of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, the latest Harry Potter and an adaptation of Ian McEwan's family drama, Atonement.
Only in 2003 were figures higher, at £1.17bn, but that was a year of swords and sandals epics as well as a new Bridget Jones and Harry Potter - and tax relief abuse. But the agreement of a new tax deal, combined with a transitional extension of the old break, appears finally to have settled industry nerves about working in the UK.

The amount of inward investment from international film-makers was particularly strong, up 83 per cent on 2005 to £570m, as Hollywood studios filmed several major productions in Britain.
They included The Bourne Ultimatum starring Matt Damon and directed by the British director Paul Greengrass, His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, Matthew Vaughn's Stardust starring Robert De Niro, Claire Danes and Sienna Miller, and Fred Claus with Kevin Spacey and Kathy Bates.

The amount of money spent on home-grown films fell by 11 per cent to £148m. But the Film Council believes that was because the use by some financiers of certain loopholes - later and controversially closed down by the Treasury - had artificially inflated the cost of making British films for a while. The number of British movies made last year rose from 37 in 2005 to 50. They included adaptations of the books Atonement with James McAvoy and Keira Knightley, The Restraint of Beasts, with Rhys Ifans and Ben Whishaw, And When Did You Last See Your Father with Jim Broadbent and Colin Firth and Brick Lane, the novel by Monica Ali.

Kenneth Branagh filmed the opera The Magic Flute in English, Rowan Atkinson made a new Mr Bean movie and Robert Carlyle starred in 28 Weeks Later, a sequel to the surprise hit 28 Days Later. There were also 57 co-productions with a combined UK spend of £122.5m, including Closing the Ring, directed by Richard Attenborough, Death Defying Acts with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Guy Pearce about Harry Houdini's love affair with a psychic, and the Jane Austen biopic, Becoming Jane.

John Woodward, chief executive officer of the UK Film Council, said: "We are back in business with British film-makers winning international awards, a crop of great British films produced and British talent and facilities in demand from film-makers around the world. "The new tax credit which came into force this year will ensure that the UK stays one of the best places in the world to produce a film." Films such as The Queen and the lottery-funded The Last King of Scotland and Venus are tipped to do well in the forthcoming awards season, he added. And this year sees the release of a number of exciting new films including This is England, Notes on a Scandal and The Other Boleyn Girl.

Paul Brett, a film financier with Prescience Film Finance, said the effect of £3.5bn in tax relief from the Treasury since 1997 and investment in skills training had been to create a "really substantial film industry" as confirmed by the latest production statistics.
Films were now being "commissioned like they're going out of fashion" because there were excellent projects around and the money to back them. The only "slightly disappointing" issue was the possibility that the new rules governing what qualified for tax relief were discouraging international co-productions.

Reel figures
134 feature films were produced by the UK in 2006, up from 124 in 2005, including 27 inward investment films and 57 UK co-productions
£840.1m was spent on film production in the UK, up 48 per cent in the disastrous 2005
£569.9m The amo-unt of investment from international film-makers, such as the major Hollywood studios locating productions in the UK
50 indigenous UK feature films were produced in 2006, a rise of 35 per cent from 37 in 2005